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Naming rights are a financial transaction and form ofadvertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often asports venue), typically for a defined period of time. For properties such as multi-purpose arenas, performing arts venues, or sports fields, the term ranges from three to 20 years. Longer terms are more common for higher profile venues such as professional sports facilities.[1]
The distinctive characteristic for this type of naming rights is that the buyer gets a marketing property to promote products and services, promotecustomer retention and/or increase market share.
There are several forms of corporate sponsored names. For example, apresenting sponsor attaches the name of the corporation or brand at the end (or, sometimes, beginning) of a generic, usually traditional, name (e.g.Mall of America Field at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome andSmart Araneta Coliseum); or, atitle sponsor replaces the original name of the property with a corporate-sponsored one (as is the case with most sponsored sports venues), with no reference to the previous name.
Stadium naming has shifted in recent years to promote corporate trade names, but in earlier decades were largely traced to the family names of company founders.
The record for the highest amount paid for naming rights belongs toCrypto.com Arena. On 17 November 2021, a 20-year, US$700 million sponsorship deal was reached betweenAnschutz Entertainment Group and Singapore-basedCrypto.com to rename Los Angeles's Staples Center (theStaples office supply store chain was the previous naming rights holder to the arena, having held them since the venue's opening in 1999). The home of theNHL'sLos Angeles Kings andNBA'sLos Angeles Lakers became known as Crypto.com Arena on December 25, 2021.[2]
Prior to the Crypto.com Arena deal, the record belonged to Toronto'sScotiabank Arena (formerly the Air Canada Centre, which opened in 1999), which garnered a deal ofCA$800 million (US$517 million) over 20 years starting in 2018.[3]
The New Meadowlands Stadium, shared home of theNew York Giants andNew York Jets inEast Rutherford, New Jersey, US, was expected to eclipse both deals, with experts estimating it would value US$25–30 million annually.[4] It ultimately fell short of that benchmark, withMetLife Stadium earning $17 million annually from its naming rights deal withMetLife.[5]
Occasionally, the purchaser of a stadium's naming rights may choose to donate those rights to an outside organization, typically one to which it is closely related. The most notable example of this isFriends Arena, a major stadium inStockholm. The facility was previously known asSwedbank Arena, but in 2012 the company donated the naming rights to the Friends Foundation, an organization heavily sponsored by Swedbank that seeks to combatschool bullying.[6] More recently, theKentucky Farm Bureau, an organization promoting the interests of Kentucky farmers that is best known to the public for its insurance business, acquired the naming rights to theUniversity of Kentucky's new baseball park in 2018. The Farm Bureau in turn donated those naming rights to theKentucky Department of Agriculture, naming the venueKentucky Proud Park. The sponsored name is the brand used by said state agency in its marketing campaign for agricultural products produced in that state.[7]
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Naming rights in United States may be traced back to 1912 with the opening ofFenway Park inBoston. The stadium's owner had owned a realty company called "Fenway Realty" (itself named for anearby parkland), so the promotional value of the naming may have likely been considered.[8] Despite this, it is more widely believed to have begun in 1926 whenWilliam Wrigley, thechewing gum magnate and owner of theChicago Cubs, named his team's stadium "Wrigley Field". In 1953,Anheuser-Busch head andSt. Louis Cardinals ownerAugust Busch, Jr. proposed renamingSportsman's Park, occupied by the Cardinals, "Budweiser Stadium".[9] When this idea was rejected byFord Frick, theCommissioner of Baseball at that time, Anheuser-Busch then proposed the title "Busch Stadium" after one of the company's founders. The name was readily approved, and Anheuser-Busch subsequently released a new product called "Busch Bavarian Beer" (now known asBusch Beer). The name would later be shifted to theBusch Memorial Stadium in1966, shortened in the 1970s to "Busch Stadium" until it closed in 2005. By that time,Major League Baseball's policy had changed – withCoors Field inDenver andMiller Park inMilwaukee going up in that span – and Anheuser-Busch (who retained the naming rights after selling the team) was able to use the same name for the Cardinals'new stadium which opened on April 4, 2006.Foxboro Stadium, the home of theNew England Patriots between 1971 and 2001, was an early example of a team selling naming rights to a company that did not own it, naming the stadiumSchaefer Stadium after thebeer company from its opening until 1983.
Public reaction to this practice is mixed. Naming rights sold to new venues have largely been accepted, especially if the buyer is well-established and has strong local connections to the area, such as the cases of Rich Stadium (nowHighmark BlueCross BlueShield Stadium) in theBuffalo suburb ofOrchard Park,Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) inPittsburgh, andCoors Field inDenver. Selling the naming rights to an already-existing venue has been notably less successful, as in the attempt to renameCandlestick Park inSan Francisco to3Com Park. The general public (and some media outlets) continued to call the facility what it had been known as for over three decades – i.e. Candlestick Park. After the agreement with 3Com expired, the rights were resold toMonster Cable, and the stadium was renamedMonster Park. San Francisco voters responded by passing an initiative (Proposition H)[10] in the November 2004 elections that stipulated the name must revert to Candlestick Park once the contract with Monster expired in 2008. The initiative proved largely ceremonial, however, and it was overturned by the passage of Proposition C in 2009 in response to desperate economic times.[11] The naming rights to the park were never resold and the stadium was closed and demolished in 2014.
Sports stadiums with naming rights deals are most common in, but not limited to, the United States. "Named" stadiums can be found in countries including Australia, Japan, China, Finland, Canada, Israel and Germany, where 8 of the 10 largest football stadiums have had their naming rights sold to corporate sponsors. The practice is widening in the United Kingdom; for instance the current stadium ofBolton Wanderers is theToughsheet Community Stadium (after 17 years as Reebok Stadium, 4 as Macron Stadium and 5 as the University of Bolton stadium) andArsenal Football Club's stadium (opened for the 2006/2007 season) is theEmirates Stadium, their previous ground beingArsenal Stadium. In cricket, the most famous example isThe Oval, home ofSurrey County Cricket Club. It has had several sponsors over the years, and is currently known as "TheKia Oval", having originally been known as the "Kennington Oval", after thedistrict of London in which it is located.
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While the highest prices have traditionally been paid for stadium naming rights, many companies and individuals have found that selling their naming rights can be an important consideration in funding their business. Since the early 2000s, many new categories have opened, such as the selling of the rights to name anew monkey species for $650,000.[12]
Naming rights to public transit stations have been sold in Las Vegas and Philadelphia (NRG station,Jefferson Station, andPenn Medicine Station).[13] Such sales have been contemplated in New York[14] andBoston, and ruled out in San Francisco.[15] A sponsorship for theMBTA'sState Street station byCitizens Bank lasted from 1997 to 2000. InTampa, naming rights for bothstreetcar stations and rolling stock are available.[16]
In December 2016, theLos Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a naming rights policy for its facilities and routes, but later rescinded the policy two months later over potential lawsuits for skipping sponsors.[17][18]
Examples outside of the United States includeMadrid Metro, whereLine 2 and the stationSol were renamed from 2013 to 2016 after the mobile phone operatorVodafone,[19] andMonumento Station in theManila Light Rail Transit System in thePhilippines, which was renamed Yamaha Monumento Station on February 14, 2018, after renovations.[20]
Naming rights in the realm of sports are common for both stadiums and sports competitions and series. In addition, some sports teams adopt a name of the sponsor as their team or club name (see List of sports clubs named after a sponsor).
Inassociation football, leagues and cup competitions sometimes adopt the name of their sponsors. For example,England'sPremier League was known as the Barclays Premier League until 2016, and itsFA Cup is officially theEmirates FA Cup.[21] As part of a rebranding, the Premier League announced in 2015 that it would not accept a title sponsorship beginning in the 2016–17 season, citing a desire to have a cleaner branding more in line with U.S. professional leagues.[22] Since 2020, the French Professional Football Ligue adopted the name ofLigue 1 McDonald's.
Incollege football, mostbowl games have modified their traditional names in favor of title sponsors, and in some cases have abandoned their traditional names. While most include their traditional name in some form (e.g. the "Rose Bowl Game presented byPrudential", "AllstateSugar Bowl"), some have moved to sponsor-only names (e.g. theGator Bowl was known for four playings as theTaxSlayer Bowl), a move that generally is treated with consternation from fans.[23]
Some newer games have only ever had sponsored names; theSunshine Football Classic in Miami was first played in 1990 as theBlockbuster Bowl, and has gone through multiple sponsorships since, includingCarquest,MicronPC,Mazda,Champs Sports,Russell Athletic,Camping World,Cheez-It, andPop-Tarts. The game briefly included "Tangerine Bowl" in its name following its re-location to Orlando (in an homage to the original branding of theCitrus Bowl), but has since only contained a sponsor in its name.[24][25][26]
Team names and even whole leagues have occasionally been sold to corporate sponsors as well (examples include theNew York Red Bulls in the former case, theNET10 WirelessArena Football League for the latter), but this is generally rare in the United States and more common in other parts of the world.
During the 1980s, sanctioned auto races inNASCAR andIndyCar began to abandon their traditional names in favor of exclusive sponsor names. The trend expanded rapidly in NASCAR such that in 1991, all 29 races in theWinston Cup Series featured sponsor names (including theDaytona 500, which was given a presenting sponsor as theDaytona 500 by STP), with little or no reference to the original names. As of the 2010s, very few exceptions remain in NASCAR (such as the Daytona 500, which no longer uses the presenting sponsor), and typically races without sponsor names only lack them because a suitable sponsor could not be secured in enough time. IndyCar follows suit, with most races embracing title sponsorship; theIndianapolis 500 was an exception until2016, when it added a presenting sponsor for the first time.[27][28] Sports media coverage (such asESPN news reports) typically refer to races by the location of the track, avoiding the use of sponsored names in news coverage.[29]
Television and radio series, especially in the early days of each medium in the early-mid 20th century, frequently sold the naming rights to their programs to sponsors, most of whombankrolled the program; examples includeThe Fleischmann's Yeast Hour,[30]Texaco Star Theatre andThe Philco Television Playhouse. This form of sponsorship fell out of favor in the late 1950s, although later examples includeMutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, which originally aired from 1963 to 1988. One of the last surviving examples is the now irregularly-airingHallmark Hall of Fame, on the air since 1951.
TheInternational Star Registry is a commercial company that since 1979 has sold unofficial naming rights to stars (i.e., theastronomical objects). The naming services are limited to an entry in a book, and carry no scientific or official authenticity according to professional astronomers.[31][32][33][34]
In some places, and especially in the UK and United States, the naming or renaming of arenas or events is usually met with disapproval from the general public. Some people see it as an example of aselling out,[35][36][37][38] especially when they see no obvious benefit to themselves. They often refuse to use a new name, preferring instead to use a non-branded name, especially in colloquial situations.Rebranding can also lead to confusion.[39] In such cases, there may be a lengthy period during which the property is known by both names. A common example isWillis Tower inChicago which was and often still is referred to as the "Sears Tower", even though the building was sold in 1994 (but retained its former name until 2003).[40]
Some major events—particularly theOlympic andParalympic Games, as well asFIFA tournaments—prohibit the use of corporately-sponsored names on venues, construing the practice as a form ofambush marketing; affected venues are given a generic name for the duration of the event (e.g.,General Motors Place was referred to as "Canada Hockey Place" during the2010 Winter Olympics), and all sponsored signage is obscured or removed.[41][42] The Olympics also enforce a strict "clean venue" rule prohibiting most corporate logos—even if official sponsors—from appearing in venues, although the Paralympics do allow the logos of official sponsors to be displayed in-venue.[43][44]
Regina, Saskatchewan'sREAL District was formerly named "Evraz Place"; when discussing its March 2022 rebranding, its owner Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) stated that it had sometimes received shipments and communications meant for the Evraz steel company–mistakenly believing that the company's North American division was based there. The contract had actually expired in 2021, but theRussian invasion of Ukraine (Evraz's largest shareholder is aRussian businessman) hastened the rebranding.[45][46]
A nonprofit organization has the option to recognize a major gift from a donor by bestowing naming rights to a property in recognition of the financial support. This is not a financial transaction in the style of the private sector. For example, in honor of the more than $60 million donated over the years by one donor to theNational Air and Space Museum properties, the directors of theSmithsonian Institution chose to name its satellite facility inLoudoun County, Virginia, after the donor, calling it theSteven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.[47]
Walgreen Coast, a portion of the coast ofAntarctica, was so named because theWalgreens pharmacy chain sponsored theByrd Antarctic Expedition.[48]
